Credit Card Statistics

Credit Card Statistics show economists and credit card users a lot about the state of the economy. Spending habits, average balances, and interest rate trends are just a small portion of the statistics constantly monitored and measured by organisations like the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

Credit card statistics might be extremely boring to read – take it from me – but they do give us valuable consumer data nonetheless. Credit card companies use this data to gage the market and increase or decrease their offers, interest rates and a lot more. But most important of all, the government will no doubt use these statistical findings to plan for the financial future of the Australian people.

2011 Credit Card Statistics

Statistics from RBA as at April 2011 (latest figures)

Number of Credit Card Accounts: 14.85 million accounts (14,853,000)
Credit Card Balance Total: $49.4 billion
Average Credit Card Balance: $3,326
Credit Card Balance Total (accruing interest): $36.4 billion (74% of the total Australia collective credit card balance is accruing interest)

Last 12 months (May 2010 – April 2011)

Total Transactions – Purchases and Cash Advances (*4% of total transaction value)

• 1.63 billion transactions
• $242.7 billion transaction value
• Average Transaction value: $149

Number of Debit Card Accounts: 33.83 million accounts (33,831,080)

Last 12 months (May 2010 – April 2011)

Total Transactions – Scheme Debit and Eftpos Purchase Transactions

Total Transactions Combined:

• 2.19 billion transactions
• $135.8 billion transaction value
• Average Transaction value: $62

Breakdown (Scheme Debit)

• 400 million transactions
• $35.8 billion transaction value
• Average Transaction value: $89

Breakdown (EFTPOS)

• 1.79 billion transactions
• $100.0 billion transaction value
• Average Transaction value: $56

I’ve had the ‘privilege’ to analyse data about the spending habits of Aussies in regards to credit card and what I have found has been very interesting indeed. But before I bore you to death with credit card statistics I figured why not present this article in a sense that makes it easy to comprehend for most people.

Therefore I have structured the analytical data into easy to follow ‘chapters.’

Aussies Paying Down Credit Cards And Accruing Less Interest

Credit card repayments are more important than ever to Australian consumers according to a study done by the ABA (Australian Bankers’ Association.) The Reserve Bank also has credit card data that shows we are more sensible than ever with managing our debt due to an increased awareness about the economic state.

Credit card repayments data promising:In the 12 months to end of June 09, our balances outstanding has grown while interest accrued on credit cards has declined. It is also the first time within a year that the balances have fallen being almost 1 per cent less than in June last year.

Chief Executive of ABA, David Bell said: “While this result stands out, if we look at the past three months, the amount accruing interest has fallen by a very large $1 billion or 3%. On a per card basis, it’s a fall of $83 or 3.7% for every credit card account over that time.”

Over the last year we have also managed to repay more money on our cards than we spent, a total of $4.9 billion more. This is a record amount. Let’s just hope that our ability to do so will continue over time.

Source: Bankers.asn.au

From then to now: credit card statistics January 1985 to May 2009.

All data relates directly to credit card and charge card statistics in Australia during that time span and if you look closer into the habits of consumers you’ll find some interesting cycles.

It is also interesting to note that during the early 1980s recession figures were considerably down, however over the course of the whole time span, all figures in the data have risen gradually if not sometimes a bit erratically due to economic influences.

Cash advances value in $m.

Back in the early 1980s our cash advances run in the figures of $110,83 million on average during the year of 1985.

Conversely, during the year to May 09, the monthly average was $1020,33 million each month. A massive increase in our demand to keep up with increased costs and spending.

Credit card purchases value in $m.

Our spending has also gone up a lot. During 1985 we spend on average of $546.58 million each month with the help of credit cards and charge cards. In the year up to May 09 this monthly figure has increased to $ 14,537.5 million.

If we place these figures in direct relation to cash advances we see a massive hike in consumer spending. It seems that Australians have fallen in love with their cards and use them just about for most purchases made.

This is no surprise as back in the older days many people were still tossing up their opinion about the risks of cards. They preferred cash.

Balances total value in $m.

Credit card balances back in 1985 on average were $2,626.83 million a month. Last year ending in May 09 the average monthly credit card and cash card balance was $44244.91 million.

Credit limits value in $m.

Credit limits have risen from $7533 million in January 1985 to $122898 million in January this year.

By looking at the credit card statistics over the past 24-years or so we can clearly see that credit cards are here to stay. They are just too easy to be used and as long as we can control our spending urges we should take advantage of their portability and ease of use.

Number of credit card accounts

Evaluating credit card statistics helps us learn about how we spend money. An understanding of how many credit card and other accounts are open relates to the trends in spending choices in Australia. The numbers do not tell the whole story, but they do explain a large part of it.

By looking at Australian credit card statistics you can learn a lot about how the way we spend our money has changed. Over the past 15 years the growth of credit card accounts has grown considerably while customer payment accounts (cheque accounts, savings accounts, statement and passbook accounts) has held steady. It should come as no surprise that the use of debit cards has nearly doubled. All this means that the average Australian is carrying more ways to pay in their wallet, which should be a good thing. However, since much of the growth has been in the use of credit cards it likely points to most of us also having a growing debt.

Credit card statistics for accounts:

• Ten years ago in 1999 there were 26.9 million customer payment accounts.
• In 2009 there were 32.8 million customer payment accounts.
• The statistics listed above sound like a jump, but in 1994 there were 34.4 million customer payment accounts. It appears that in the late 1990′s that customer payment account ownership dropped slightly but now has climbed back to normal levels.
• Debit card ownership in 1999 was at 15.7 million.
• Debit card ownership in 2009 has jumped to 23.7 million.
• Credit card statistics show us that there were 12.1 million credit card accounts in 1999.
• In 2009 there were 20.0 million credit card accounts.

These credit card statistics seem to show a decline in the use of them because in the past few years growth has been slow or even declined. If you look back to 1999 you see that there were 9.1 million credit card accounts. Those numbers grew steadily reaching 22.6 million in 2005. The next year they dropped to 22.3 only to see a rise the following year to 22.9. Those numbers are all so close that it appears there was not much change from 2005 to 2007. Then in 2008 there was a fairly significant drop to 20.3 million. That trend continued into 2009.

It is hard to know exactly what these credit card statistics mean. Possibly, Australians are heeding the warnings against credit card spending. Less accounts may mean that they are actually spending less on credit and also lessening their debt. However, credit card companies are also getting smarter so some of the change may be related to the use of less cards but not necessarily less transactions or less debt.

Credit Card Finder^® are committed to providing our users with the most up to date Credit Card Statistics on the Australian market and abroad. The following articles incorporate credit card data and statistics that we’ve gathered over the years:

For more statistics, visit the RBA website.